Before Gov. Sarah Palin came flying in from the wilds of Alaska for the Republican convention in St. Paul, there was a lot of sniggering in media rooms and satellite trucks about her beauty queen looks and rustic hobbies, and the suggestion that she was better suited to be a calendar model for a local auto body shop than a holder of the second-highest office in the land.

Ms. Palin, unwilling to be rendered as a caribou-skinning cartoon, stepped to the microphone on Wednesday and punched back.

[...]

In the press galleries at the convention, journalists wrinkled their noses in disgust when Piper, Ms. Palins youngest daughter, was filmed kitty-licking her baby brothers hair into place. But to many Americans  including some I talked to in the convention hall  that looked like family church on Sunday, evidence of good breeding and sibling regard.

Even her styling for the speech spoke volumes. Avoiding the fashion traditions of both show business and politics, Ms. Palin looked great, but not glamorous  more like the put-together neighbor down the street who got gussied up for date night with her husband.

[...]Ms. OHara was fired up by all the sudden energy, but a bit suspicious of those who were there to cover it.

Conservatives have a bad history with The New York Times, she said, looking at my press ID, still smiling and still very friendly. How can I be sure that you wont take my words and twist them to suit some agenda that you already have?

Her friends from Montana leaned in and enjoyed the spectacle as I stammered my way through a response. Im working on an answer because I dont think it is the last time that question is going to come up.

Bravo Sierra. This is nothing but forced self-deprecation by a representative of a narcissistic pseudo-profession as a tool to disarm the rubes. This guy’s article is too precious for words, but no one should take this seriously. IMHO

I think America saw a decent honest Conservative for the first time since RWR left office and they really really liked what they saw. The cognizant Left ( granted, a small minority ) is wetting their panties.

Did anyone see Rick Sanchez tonight discussing Sarah Palin? Rich Sanchez said that the McCain camp had referred to Obama as Jesus and Mrs.Palin, like Pontius Pilot, govenor. I thought I read an article on FR today which quoted Donna Barzile as saying that. As a matter of fact I believe the Youtube video of that was posted. In a hit-piece by Sanchez tonight he attributed that to the McCain camp. Does anyone have a chronology on this?

Conservatives have a bad history with The New York Times, she said, looking at my press ID, still smiling and still very friendly. How can I be sure that you wont take my words and twist them to suit some agenda that you already have?

If this was all I knew about Palin - that she was able to confront this man in a firm but honest fashion - she would have my vote../

Not a bad piece. Since they are selectively choosing who interviews her, you think everyone is trying to put on a "nice" face so they, too, can interview the next VP? Some classic lines in this though, for instance: ...is it O.K. to wear fur as long as you killed the animal yourself?

She has a degree in journalism and worked as a TV broadcaster. As an insider, she knows the professions vulnerabilities.

That is a brilliant observation! I read that she had worked for a TV station but you just connected the dots and made the light bulb appear above my head. Wow, they have NO idea what they're in for. This could get really fun to watch.

I thought this artice was pretty well balanced so I sent the following message to David Carr:

“David, thanks for your balanced report on Mrs. Palin. Conservatives don’t expect praise only from the media, but we do want truth and we want all candidates held to similar standards and vetting. I am grateful that your report appears to meet these criteria. Even if not all can agree with Sarah’s political or social positions, isn’t it clear that that she is a remarkable woman, probably representative of many, many others who balance work and family. Can’t we all celebrate that?”

He responded almost immediately with the following:

” I think her choices — with five hungry kids, I personally would have never fired the chef — will resonate huge with the public. we have not seen the likes of her in national politics.

thanks for kind note.”

Perhaps some writers, even those with the “Slimes,” can be encouraged with positive responses when warranted. Remember the Bible says that a kind word turns away wrath.

>>>David Carr seems to get it...somewhat.
How did this slip through?<<<

I’m a former newspaperman. In fact, I worked in Wasilla when Sarah Palin was on the city council. I quit in disgust because of the unrelenting leftist politics... but that’s another post. Here’s my response to the idea that David Carr gets it.

Newspapers are, at their core, businesses. They need readers to stay alive. For the past 15 years, the print media has been dying of anemia as readers slowly drain away and move to other sources of news. The Times is a husk of what it used to be when I read it religiously back in the early 1970s, and they know it, and many publishers, editors, and reporters already know that the reason readers are leaving stems from the notion of “advocacy journalism,” which almost always means “leftwing advocacy.”

Since most of us aren’t leftists, readers get bored, disinterested, disgusted, or supremely pissed off. They’re looking at Limbaugh and O’Reilly and Drudge and wondering how they can do it, too.

Eventually, they will either adapt or die. Many will be unwilling to give up their leftist beliefs, and those papers will go the way of poetry readings and the village crier. Some will gain of glimmer of understanding and start opening their newsrooms to journalists who reflect their readers.

My frank assessment of the Times is it is too late to provide the token conservative viewpoint and hope for increased readership. Too many readers have been burned too many times. Palin, though, for the left, must feel like being dragged through the gauntlet.

This moment in our nation’s history feels to me like the watershed moment when the left is finally going to pop like the empty balloon it is. The popping noise will probably sound more like a fart, though. Stink bad, too. LOL

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